Schumer and the Reichsfluchsteuer

My Monday column about the similarity between German exit-tax policy Senator Schumer and Speaker Boehner's attempt to tax Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who renounced his American citizenship and left the country, seems to have drawn Mr. Schumer's ire. The Los Angeles Times (here) and the Huffiington Post (here) have reports about Mr. Schumer's speech on the Senate floor on the topic: "I know a thing or two about what the Nazis did. Some of my relatives were killed by them."

For a speech in which Mr. Schumer seemed to stress his Jewish background, there were some odd rhetorical twists. Mr. Schumer reportedly described Mr. Saverin as "a tax dodger who renounces America for his own 30 pieces of silver." That seemed a reference to the Christian Bible's account of Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Jesus.

In any event, as Grover Norquist pointed out to the Huffington Post, and as I pointed out in Monday's column, the Reichsfluchsteuer was originally imposed not by the Nazis targeting Jews, but by the centrist predecessor government in the context of more general capital controls. Said Norquist: "He [Schumer] didn't go to high school. The Nazis didn't come to power until 1933. This law was passed in 1931."